Virtual machines (VMs) are an increasingly popular technology for improving flexibility and efficiency in a range of computational systems. Certain VM systems are conventionally managed using a graphical user interface (GUI) application, which provides an intuitive visual interface for managing individual virtual machine instances. As VM systems grow to include a larger number of VM instances, conventional GUIs can quickly become unwieldy and inefficient in presenting information about individual VM instances.
Further, recent improvements in the computing power, mobile display technologies and connection speeds of mobile devices, combined with the continued decreases in hardware costs, have made powerful mobile devices available even to system administrators and the general public. Mobile applications for the mobile devices have been developed to provide access to information services and applications when users are traveling or away from the office, including GUIs for managing VM instances in a datacenter. However, problems with presenting information about the datacenter in conventional GUIs are further exacerbated by limitations in display size and usability of mobiles devices.